1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to toothbrushes for brushing the teeth and the gingiva below the teeth in the oral cavity, and more particularly to a toothbrush assembly consisting of a handle component and a brush component, the brush component in the storage mode of the assembly being housed within the handle component, and in the brushing mode being attached to the handle component and projecting therefrom.
2. Status of Prior Art
A toothbrush is the basic implement used in dental hygiene. In its standard form, it consists of a molded plastic handle having a shank extension on which a brush head is anchored. This head is created by a cluster of nylon or other bristles, usually in a rectangular array.
The stick-like handle of a conventional toothbrush handle is such that in order to grip it firmly, the fingers of the user's hand are curled about the handle, the thumb being pressed against the inner surface to provide a prehesile grip. No use is made of the palm of the handle when gripping the handle of a conventional toothbrush.
The dental structure in the oral cavity is in a horseshoe formation, the teeth projecting above the gingiva. In effective dental hygiene, food particles and other plaque-producing contaminants which adhere to the inner and outer surfaces of the dental structure or which lodge in the crevices between adjacent teeth must be scrubbed away to arrest the growth on these surfaces of pathogenic organisms. These organisms are the principal etiological factor associated with periodontal disease, dental infections and caries. This is not difficult to do with a conventional toothbrush in the more accessible frontal regions of the dental structure.
However, the stick-like handle of a standard toothbrush militates against a thorough brushing action in the less accessible rear and side regions of the dental structure on both the inner and outer surfaces thereof. These regions are hard to reach without unduly stretching the mouth to permit angling of the toothbrush.
The ability of the user to manipulate a standard toothbrush so that its brush head can reach and engage the relatively inaccessible surfaces of the dental structures to effect a scrubbing action is limited by the geometry of the standard toothbrush. The brush head is in a right angle to a straight line handle stick and therefore cannot be curved in toward the surface to be brushed. And the handle stick lends itself to be gripped by the fingers of the hand in only one way and is therefore inflexible in regard to how the handle can be manipulated to orient the brush head with respect to the surfaces to be brushed.
Another serious drawback of a standard toothbrush is that some users tend to grasp the stick-like handle with excessive force in order to prevent the handle from slipping in the course of brushing activity. When a user so clenches the handle, he also tends to brush the dental surfaces with excessive vigor. Such vigorous activity may in time cause the gums to recede and expose the roots of the teeth with damaging consequences.
With many other users of a standard toothbrush, the problem is not their tendency to grip the toothbrush handle with excessive force, but lies in their inability to effectively grip the handle.
A large number of senior citizens have diminished digital capacity, other users have underdeveloped or impaired muscular strengths or poor coordination, still others suffer from joint diseases which interfere with their ability to clench their fist or to grip a handle effectively.
The prior art recognizes the limitations of conventional toothbrushes and seeks to overcome these limitation in various ways. Thus the Beebe et al. patent 4,283,808 provides a sausage-shaped foam-plastic handle for a toothbrush that is easier to grip then a conventional toothbrush handle. In the toothbrush disclosed in this patent, a plug-in brush component is coupled to the handle.
In the toothbrush shown in the Borea et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,109, the handle is contoured to define mounds and depressions affording an anatomical grip.
The toothbrush shown in the O'Halloran U.S. Pat. No. 4,454,623 includes a handle having a planar finger rest and a concave thumb rest to facilitate manipulation of the handle. The Hanse et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,924 discloses a toothbrush having a replaceable brush head and a handle having an S-shaped indentation to accommodate the thumb and forefinger of the user. In the toothbrush handle shown in the Ernest et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,437, the handle has a front portion that is offset by angled intermediate portion from a rear portion.
While these prior art toothbrushes have advantages over conventional toothbrushes and improve the grip, the finger and thumb positions are confined to predetermined sites and therefore lack flexibility. To make it possible to manipulate the handle so that the brush head can reach all regions of the dental structure and engage the inner and outer surfaces thereof, with the brush head properly oriented to carry out an effective brushing action, one must be able to grasp the handle in a manner appropriate to the surface to be engaged and its location on the dental structure.